I have recently switched from windows to linux. Initially, I installed xubuntu on my eeePC901 and now I want to install Ubuntu 9.04 on my desktop.

When I use a live CD I have to select safe graphics mode, otherwise the desktop freezes and often doesn't display properly. usually a black screen with some coloured speckles.
Once in to the desktop (Gnome) in safe graphics mode I can select
System-Administration-Hardware Devices
then activate the Nvidea accellerated graphics driver (Version 180 is recommended)

When I install Ubuntu to the hard drive and try running it, the screen goes black (with a movable arrow cursor) after the login is achieved. There does not appear to be any way to select safe graphics mode. I can switch to a terminal window (alt-ctl-F1) and have run
sudo apt-get update
& sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
without any visual effect.

I suspected the graphics card driver is not installed so I tried installing using a terminal and instructions based on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1125400
I installed nvidia's driver 180.60 from http://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...80.60-pkg1.run
It reported as installed correctly (after all the kernel compiling, etc)

I tried it, resulting in just a blank screen after the login as before.

I had to remove temp1 and freetype from modules in xorg.conf to make
grep -n "^(EE)" /var/log/Xorg*log report no errors,

grep -i "nvidia\|NVRM" /var/log/syslog gave no indication anything was wrong

Trying to uninstall using
sudo nvidia-uninstall
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all
also resulted in a blank screen after login


The only way I have found so far to get onto the desktop is through the LIVE CD by selecting Safe Graphics Mode..

How do I do this for the installed version ?
Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this please.



The graphics card is a GE7800GT,
Mother board Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
Processor Athlon 64
Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04)

Assuming you are not dual-booting, enter the Grub menu by pressing ESC when you see "grub loading" on system startup, and select 'Recovery Mode'.

You'll see several screen pages of text, then a menu will appear. Select "xfix".

When you're finished, reinstall the drivers using the "Hardware Drivers" utility.

I wasn't dual booting at the time. I did select the second grub option, which I think was recovery mode. It did exactly the same as the main grub option. ie. blank screen. I am not currently at my home PC so I can't try again yet. I will try the <Esc> during grub loading when I get home tonight. HOWEVER ...

I have re-installed Mandriva as I needed the PC, but with an extra partition for experimental purposes. I will attempt to install Ubuntu again tonight as a triple boot Mandriva, Windoze, Ubuntu. I can't afford to be without a PC during the week so Ubuntu will have to run in parallel with Mandriva.

Will the fact that I am duel(triple) booting make any difference to the <Esc> Recovery Mode ?

What does the <Esc> do anyway ? The Grub menu is displayed by default.



Partitions are now

sda1 Mandriva root (ext3)
sda5 Experimental (ext3) - unmounted by Mandriva. This is where I will put Ubuntu
sda6 Mandriva /home (ext3)
sda7 swap (raw)

sdb1 Windows XP (ntfs) - Mandriva mounts at /mnt/windows
sdb5 Mandriva /mnt/Aux(ext4) - General purpose (& backup) disk

In general I remove the sdb disk during experimentation to prevent it being accidentally damaged.
Windows is used only for those progs which won't run under Linux and is a minimal installation.

Only that you'll need to select the correct one.

Basically, ESC opens the Grub menu. Period. If it was already open on startup when single-booting Ubuntu 9.04, then perhaps it's using a newer (or reconfigured) Grub. I haven't upgraded past 8.04- I tend to stick with LTS versions.

Cheers

I installed Ubuntu last night. Suprisingly it worked first time. The only difference between last nights install and all the others I have attempted was that I was installing it onto a partition of a disk with other OS on it, instead of installing it onto its own disk.
Very odd but I'm not complaining.
Now all I have to do is get the nvidia-settings to display BOTH screens individually in cinerama. At the moment it's only displaying one screen.
Is there a control menu in Ubuntu to enable the second screen. In Mandriva I had to enable the second screen from the desktop configuration tool before using nvidia-settings run as root.